For over a decade after the release of The Matrix, Lana Wachowski avoided the public eye, practicing a Kubrickian anti-press policy alongside her brother Andy. But the director siblings have been slowly pulling back their veil of secrecy in advance of the release of their new three-hour epic Cloud Atlas, first in a teaser-explanation of the movie, then in a lengthy New Yorker profile. Over the weekend, though, Lana stepped decisively into the limelight, giving a speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s gala dinner in San Francisco. Lana — a transgender woman, formerly Larry — gave a moving almost half-hour speech about her personal journey, including anecdotes about being beaten by a nun in a Catholic grade school and a teenaged planned suicide attempt. (Wachowski wrote a 4-page suicide note; she deadpanned, “I’m a little talkative.”)

The Hollywood Reporter has the full video of Wachowski’s moving speech, which also features a deconstruction of the term “transition,” an explanation for the Wachowski’s anti-media stance, and a dynamite use of the word “inculcate.”